This week I had a pet for a day. We found him rustling about in the leaves late one evening. Ghanaians have the power of night vision (in addition to fire-proof hands), so James immediately identified the creature and carefully picked him up. We brought him into the living room. I inspected the creature. About the size of a softball and covered with ¾" grey/black spikes, it appeared to be a large sea urchin.
James said, "It's like a rat."
DING DING DING
LIGHT BULB MOMENT
"Oh it's a hedgehog!" I exclaimed.
We waited quietly for some time. Finally he unrolled and started exploring the living room. Unball-ed, he was about 6" long and 4" tall. His paws and face were white with a dark nose and large dark eyes. Using my Audubon Guide, I identified him as an African Four-toed Hedgehog, Atelerix albiventris. This species can be found in most of the wooded savannah across sub-Saharan Africa. He house is a nest made of twigs, and he dines on insects, small eggs, fruits, nuts, and seeds. His most important characteristic... African four-toed hedgehogs have been observed battling and killing poisonous snakes.
So that evening, he spent some more time sniffing around the living room. I gave him a snack of candy corn. Then he decided to sleep behind some paint cans.
The next morning, I awoke to find him snuggled up cozily inside my tennis shoe. SO cute! I decided I would name him Mr. Darcy. I left some raisins outside the shoe and went to school. When I returned home, Eman (the student who comes to help around the house) was there making a snack. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to inform Eman of Mr. Darcy. He left the backdoor door open, as we usually do, and Mr. Darcy had made his escape! Though only after consuming all the raisins.
So Mr. Darcy was my pet for one day. And now I can say that once I kept a hedgehog as a pet.
I only took videos of Mr. Darcy so here is a picture of one of his relatives.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Ghana? I understand perfectly that you think that your e-mail is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Ghana in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Ok so I don't function well this late at night, shut up you will understand at 35. I posted under Carolyn on November 8. Love, the best sitter ever. :)
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